Hindu terror remark: Court dismisses criminal defamation case against Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde

NEW DELHI: A Delhi court today dismissed a criminal defamation case filed against Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde for his 'Hindu terror' remark.

"The complaint is dismissed," Metropolitan Magistrate Amitabh Rawat said, while refusing to give a copy of detailed order to the complainant in the case and directed him to apply for a certified copy.

The court passed the order on the complaint lodged by Ved Parkash Kumar, who had alleged that the home minister had "wilfully" made the "derogatory" remarks to cause "ill will and hatred among communities".

Kumar, in his petition, filed through his counsel Monika Arora had alleged that Shinde's remarks were aimed at "polarising minority votes" in the 2014 general elections.

"The impugned statement is not only defamatory in its natural meaning but also contains the imputation and insinuation that Hindu religion is involved in anti-national and terrorist activities," Arora had submitted.

She further told the court that the minister "has used the word saffron as synonym of terrorism, which is totally absurd, wrong, mischievous and defamatory".

According to the petition, Shinde, while addressing an AICC meeting at Jaipur earlier this year, had said "...We have got an investigation report that be it RSS or BJP, their training camps are promoting Hindu terrorism. We are keeping a strict vigil on all this."